This year, being my fifth at the college, I decided to undertake a professional development opportunity in the July holidays and visited the Southport School on the Gold Coast for the International Boys Schools Conference, with several colleagues from all three Newington campuses.

Across four days, we spent time catching up with old colleagues at different schools, networking with fellow professionals, learning from a wide range of workshops and listening to some powerful keynote speakers share their experiences of teaching.

From a personal perspective, teaching and working with the older primary boys in Stage 3, one of my main interests lies in personal wellbeing and some of the challenges that face the boys of today. In the twenty years since I myself left primary school in the UK, the teaching landscape has shifted massively, with the weight of the expectations heavy on many students’ shoulders.

Greg Mitchell’s workshop, addressing the ‘traditional’ academic underperformance of boys in comparison to girls, felt particularly relevant in the context of the need to improve boys’ social and emotional wellbeing at school, in order to motivate them to strive towards their goals. He certainly had some interesting and creative ideas that I will be trialling in class this semester.

Witnessing Li Cunxin’s closing keynote speech was fantastic, for those unfamiliar he is the author of Mao’s Last Dancer, and he recounted his tale of being plucked from obscurity as a peasant child growing up in rural, Communist China during the 1960’s, to international stardom as a famed ballet dancer. He asserted that without the intervention and inspiration of a particular childhood teacher (with whom is still in contact with today), he would have given up on his dreams and faded back into obscurity, he was given the motivation and courage to succeed.

Courage was never more evident than in the opening keynote of the conference, and for me, the most relevant, poignant and insightful address of the four days. It was delivered by Catherine McGregor AM, who for those unfamiliar, had a distinguished military career and was at one point, the most senior transgender member of Australia’s armed forces. Her story of trial and tribulations was an inspiration, and her strong message of courage, respect and acceptance should not be taken for granted. I am thankful that we live in an increasingly tolerant society, which is mirrored at our school. It is our responsibility as parents and educators to prepare the boys for an ever changing world, and preparation starts from a young age.

I feel privileged to work for an institution that places a strong emphasis on the social and emotional wellbeing of its students. With around two hundred boys at the Lindfield campus, we as teachers are in a unique position in which we can really get to know the boys. Indeed, I helped teach some of the current Year 6 boys when I first started and they were in Year 2, and it has been a rewarding experience watching them grow and develop as the last few years have gone by. The boys have learnt to become resilient, independent, respectful, committed to one another and to the wider community. As a White Ribbon school, we encourage and expect a strong culture of respect in all of our boys, starting at a young age. I am grateful that I work for a school that instills such strong values in its boys, building the ‘men of substance’ of tomorrow that we can be proud of. As John F Kennedy once said, ‘To whom much is given, much is also expected’.

The conference was a great opportunity to enrich my own learning as a teacher, consider best practice and gain new ideas to use in future. I am grateful to work for a school that looks to upskill its staff in order to enrich the lives of its students.

Sam Watson – Year 5 Teacher